The Current Crisis

Back in the teens and twenties when he was running for office, Benito Mussolini used the arguement that the best form of government was a benevolent dictatorship. He put himself forward as candidate for the job of dictator, and the Italian people bought it. Part of the persuasion to demonstrate the obvious superiority of a thoroughly modern dictatorship over the so 19th century democracy was that if you had a problem of some sort, and went to a democratic government for help, all you would get would be endless partisan bickering. If you went to a good dictator, however, your problem would be properly addressed pretty much immediately. He didn't go in to how often you would actually like the solution.

It's a persuasive arguement with only a couple of shortcomings. First is the presumption that any problem you have even should be addressed by the government, and second, the notion that there will always be problems of this magnitude for the government to address. If you're running for office on this platform and there is no problem to cite, then one must be created to justify your position.

Back about the same time frame H. L. Mencken observed:

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed [and hence clamorous to be led to safety] by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

Is this whole financial mess just another hobgoblin? Check this, in light of the US to fail to turn into a black hole quickly enough through the Freddie and Fannie show:

Harry Reid joined Senator Chuck Schumer today in spreading panic.
In July, Senator Schumer caused a run at IndyMac after a letter he wrote prompted the collapse by causing the run and scaring away potential acquirers.
Today, Senate Majority Leader Reid joined him.
Reid told reporters that a major US insurance company is going under:

The bigger the problem gets, the more government intervention is obviously needed, and everybody knows which party is the party of big government intervention.

The more I see legislation purporting to fix a problem used as a vehicle for personal pork, the less I'm inclined to thing the problem wouldn't largely fix itself if left alone. In the case of the mortgage meltdown, the problem was set up by legislation requiring banks to make questionable loans, followed by legislation requiring F&F to buy those mortgages.

Just repeal the bad legislation, and walk away.